An out-of-work manager has now held talks with Sunderland.
Sunderland, per the words of owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, are now in the final stages of their search for a new manager.
Louis-Dreyfus recently posted a message on X via the club’s official account, revealing that the club hope to have a new manager in place very soon.
It’ll bring an end to what’s been a very arduous and prolonged search process, with the club now approaching the four-month mark since they sacked Michael Beale.
There seems to be a narrow list of names in contention to replace Beale at the Stadium of Light, with Will Still seemingly out of the running as he nears the RC Lens job.
Former AZ Alkmaar boss Pascal Jansen is reported to be under consideration, whilst recent reports have claimed that QPR boss Marti Cifuentes is now a shock contender.
Alan Nixon claims that Cifuentes is a late contender for the job after he steered the R’s to an impressive 18th place finish last season.
Elsewhere, Liam Rosenior has been heavily linked in the past few days; he was speculatively linked beforehand, but journalist Michael Graham has since revealed that he’s under consideration.
And now, it’s claimed that Rosenior has held talks over the Sunderland job.
Liam Rosenior holds talks with Sunderland over vacant manager position
Nixon has claimed on Patreon that Rosenior has ‘had talks’ with Sunderland about the possibility of becoming the Black Cats’ next manager.
Rosenior, 39, is out-of-work after being sacked by Hull City in May, despite guiding the club to a 7th place finish in the Championship last season.
Nixon adds that Rosenior was ‘contacted a month ago’ by Sunderland, but initially held off; recent reports revealed that Rosenior was biding his time after holding multiple talks with Birmingham City, who’ve since appointed Chris Davies.
Hull City owner Acun Ilicali previously stated that Rosenior was sacked due to differences with regards to the playing style, with Ilicali wanting more offensive and exciting football.
Sunderland appear to have two front-runners in manager race
Rosenior now seems to be a front-runner for the Sunderland job, following updates from Graham and Nixon.
Nixon’s latest update though should be taken with a pinch of salt; he previously claimed that Dave Challinor and Stephen Robinson were among the final candidates, which was quickly disproved.
Whether or not Rosenior really has held talks with Sunderland remains to be seen. But it certainly appears that he’s liked by Louis-Dreyfus and Kristjaan Speakman, along with Jansen.
Many Sunderland fans on social media are keen for Jansen to land the job, whereas Rosenior has received mixed reviews from Sunderland supporters in the past.
Whilst he achieved a good league finish with Hull City, the stats show that his side perhaps didn’t play very exciting football, and Sunderland fans will surely be desperate to see an end to the negative style of play that Beale and Mike Dodds both donned.
Who becomes the next Sunderland manager remains to be seen, but it certainly looks like we’ll soon find out.